Corelas
Corelas is a Senchal-born Altmer, and long-standing ship's carpenter aboard the Saint Alessia. Appearance Corelas is an Altmer, but only of the grubbiest foreign-born lines, which shows in his physical features. He has the golden skin of a true-bred Altmer, but it is besmirched with freckles of dark bronze along his cheeks, shoulders and forearms. Curls of banal brown ill-become his Altmeri brow, and his eyes are a mundane dark brown. His chin is too blunt, his brow is too low, his eyes are too big, his lips are too wide, his teeth are improperly spaced, and his right ear is a fraction of an inch longer than his left. In short, he is not a handsome Altmer, although to a human he appears far from the grotesque. Short for an Altmer (of course) although reasonably tall by most standards, he has a slim and lightweight build, strong enough for his kind of work, but quicker than it is powerful. Skills Corelas is a better carpenter than he is an Altmer. In fact, he’s about as good an on-board carpenter as one might hope for. He has a honed and effective understanding of the workings of wood, water and wind, and can almost effortlessly assess the needs of the ship in a situation. With a rope around his waist, he is willing and able to address those needs from the top to bottom of the ship, rarely trusting anyone else with anything but minor fixes. He is something of an unusual ship’s carpenter, however, by dint of having served on some very unusual ships. The average carpenter probably could not say what magicka-burn does to a ship’s hull, or how to brace a rudder against void shift. Corelas does not see this extra knowledge as anything truly arcane; to him, it’s simply more wood, water and weather, an extension of his art. Beyond carpentry, Corelas’ skills are less impressive; he has learnt from experience how to wield a blade reasonably well (his being left-handed and somewhat unpredictable helping greatly), and when on land, he likes to whittle. There is no such thing as spare wood on board a ship, but he will happily carve designs, inscriptions and shapes into the Saint Alessia’s many posts, panels and corners. Possessions Relatively few. He wears a leather jerkin, with flexible and much scuffed matching boots, along with fingerless leather gloves (so as to protect his hands, but allow him his full sense of touch), a puffed-and-slashed shirt of coarse linen (white-ish on top, with green showing through), and close-fitting breeches, padded with leather at the knees. Several belts and sashes attach his most essential tools to his body (the rest being kept in his chest), and around his neck he wears a worn bandana, once part of a sumptuous ancestor shawl, now rather lowered to keeping dust out of his mouth and nose, or his hair out of his eyes. As a weapon, he carries a one-handed Khajiiti sabre, given to him as payment by a Khajiiti pirate down on his luck. Tribal-style; it is not an extravagant weapon, but handsome in its way, and very effective with his general strategy of keeping enemies at bay until someone better kills them. Most often it is simply strapped over his shoulder, out of the way, but if he isn’t working it will be sheathed at his hip. Aside from that, he owns little of note. A coin purse, a set of bone dice, a handy boot-knife, a hip flask, a jade earring and a few books. He isn’t much of a one for sentimental possessions, and aside from his tools, his trade requires very little. Personality Corelas lives for his work, finding genuine joy in repairing even the slightest of wounds to “his” ship, even if he resents their having been caused. This love, and many decades of practice, have made him very skilled, and he knows it, taking great pride in his abilities, almost to the level of arrogance. He has little patience for anyone who does not appreciate him, his craft, or the work he does, and was relieved of duty on an East Empire Company ship for telling the captain that if he learned to sail, his hull might not get damaged so often. Not quite the standard raucous sailor, Corelas is nonetheless happy to drink, laugh and sing, but is more prone to sarcasm or backtalk of a drier sort. If disturbed, he is likely to be irascible and abrasive, so any who do not quickly learn to leave him to his work are unlikely to get along with him. In the manner of craftsmen and artists everywhere, Corelas is all but immune to criticisms, threats or intimidation by others. While he may prove unpredictable while his head is full of carpentry thoughts, Corelas may be called one of the more grounded of the Alessia’s crew, carrying his craft happily through hell and high water without batting an eye. Strengths His main strength is of course that he is an excellent carpenter. Almost nothing can distract him, deter him, or otherwise limit his willingness or ability to work his trade. He is one hundred per cent reliable, and such dedication can be a useful encouragement to his crewmates. Major Flaws He has little patience for the peculiarities of his more unhinged crewmates, or more generally for the concerns of those around him. Almost any effect he might have on another person is entirely passive, as he puts almost no effort into pleasing, supporting, or reassuring others. Despite being only one of many people entrusted with maintaining a mighty ship, he finds it incredibly difficult to delegate tasks; if he knows what needs to be done, and how to do it (he usually does), he will just do it. History Born in the Elsweyr port city of Senchal (and not the nicer district), he quite logically fell into work on the harbours. His family was not rich, or much of anything, but they had saved fervently to afford a future for their son, and once he was old enough to be apprenticed, they paid for him to be bound to a Khajiiti carpenter – an excellent prospect for a young boy of no standing in Senchal. Naturally, although they worked on many day-to-day things, Corelas and his master were mostly occupied with repairs and fittings for ships, generally working under contract to one of the city’s shipwrights, or on their own initiative for captains on a budget. It was this side of the business that came to truly inspire the young Corelas. Rafters and door frames were well enough, but to work on a ship was art – the pinnacle of the carpenter’s trade and the finest expression of skill moulding wood. Senchal, as the southernmost major port in all Tamriel, attracted all manner of sailors, and all manner of ships, each one exiting and intriguing to Corelas’ hungry mind, slowly filling with his craft. When he came of age to end his apprenticeship, his master begged him to stay on as a partner, and for a brief time, he did. Within a year, however, the old Khajiit was killed in a harbour accident. Corelas had no space in his mind for the running of a business, and accepted the first job offer he could, abandoning the carpenter’s shop to his master’s relatives and going to work as a junior shipwright. This in its turn lasted several years, and the talented Corelas assisted in the construction and maintenance of all manner of ships, honing his appreciation of the technical details, the mathematics and science that went into the creation of a truly beautiful ship. But it still wasn’t enough. As he watched his exquisite creations sail away, one by one, to do what a ship is born to do, Corelas grew more and more accustomed to the feeling of loneliness and incompleteness, as if his work was half finished. When the East Empire Company ship Foamcutter, an illustrious vessel and a feat of shipbuilding, docked in Senchal for major repairs, Corelas headed the considerable works. The ship’s carpenter had drowned on their voyage, (washed away in a storm while attempting to shore up a damaged hull) and without consideration for his career or his home, Corelas eagerly signed on, sailing out of Senchal aboard a pristine ship. The life of a ship after leaving the harbour proved very different to its life before, as did that of a carpenter, but soon enough Corelas found himself more than capable of adapting. Life on the sea offered so much more – the ship was not a sleeping beast beneath his healing hands, but a roaring animal, hot and alive, to be tamed and tended and tethered with all his skill. The sailors quickly bowed to his expertise, and the ship quickly bowed to his ministrations. His new life suited him well, and from that first ship, he moved from vessel to vessel as circumstances pushed him to and fro. Recent Occupation Ship’s carpenter aboard a string of vessels, mostly East Empire Company, but more recently privateers, and specifically the Saint Alessia. Category:Mananauts Category:Altmer Category:Characters Category:Spiros and the Mananauts